Vietnam Crackdown: More Hmong Killed As Army Deploys

More Hmong protesters have been
killed or arrested in Dien Bien province today as Vietnam
deploys additional army units and thousands of soldiers and
police to seek to contain mass demonstrations and the spread
of discontent with the policies of the government in Hanoi,
and local communist party officials. Hundreds of additional
ethnic Hmong are missing or have disappeared, many have been
arrested and loaded onto military trucks where they are
being sent to unknown locations in Vietnam or
Laos..

Vietnam People's Army troops and security forces
have killed at least 21 more ethnic Hmong protesters on May
6-7, in the Dien Bien province area of Northern Vietnam and
seriously wounded 132 more according to the Center for
Public Policy Analysis, non-governmental organizations and
Hmong, Vietnamese and Lao sources in the province and border
area. Casualties continue to mount with a total of 49 now
know dead since the crackdown by Vietnam's army More Hmong
demonstrators have also disappeared at the hands of
Vietnamese security forces as Hanoi seeks to seal the
remote, mountainous border area, with Laos off from
independent journalists.

“Innocent Hmong protesters
seeking basic reforms, and to address fundamental
injustices, are now being attacked by Vietnam People's Army
troops and propaganda and false allegations from Hanoi; ”
said Christy Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Advance, Inc.
in Washington, D.C.

“The soldiers have killed another
21 more people and have wounded and arrested hundreds more
according to what our Hmong people are reporting and from
our sources in the Dien Bien province area of Vietnam and
the border area with Laos,” Ms. Lee stated. “Another
Hmong person is on the verge of death from her wounds
inflicted by any AK-47 army rifle-butt and
bayonet”

“We know that the Army has falsely accused
the Vietnamese and Hmong people engaged in the recent
protests and rallies and has moved in many armored vehicles
and trucks to take the Hmong people away to unknown
locations in Vietnam, or Laos, where they may be tortured or
killed, or simply disappear,” Lee concluded.

“Currently,
a total of at least 49 Hmong people are known to have been
killed by Vietnam People's Army troops and special police
since Hanoi's crackdown was launched by the military against
peaceful Hmong demonstrators,” Smith commented.

“At
the height of the rallies, the Hmong demonstrations for land
reform and religious freedom involved more that 8,500 people
in Dien Bien province and the Dien Bien Phu area along the
border of Vietnam and Laos,” Smith said. “The Hmong were
peacefully calling for basic human rights and government
reform.”

“We have received credible reports that 1263
Hmong have been arrested and loaded onto military trucks
where they are being sent to unknown locations by Vietnam
People's Army soldiers and special paramilitary police,”
Smith stated.

“Most of the Hmong killed and wounded in
recent days by the Vietnamese troops suffered gunshot wounds
from automatic weapons, or were apparently beaten and
bayoneted to death,” Smith said.

“Unfortunately,
thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and police began attacking
the Hmong demonstrators to try to disperse the crowds
voicing calls for land reform, human rights and religious
freedom,” Smith commented. “We are urging the government
of Vietnam and the Army to immediately cease these senseless
and blood attacks against the Hmong protesters and their
families.

“Casualties continue to mount and more Hmong
demonstrators have disappeared at the hands of Vietnamese
security forces as Hanoi seeks to seal the area off and
pursue the people into the mountains and jungles,:” Smith
observed.

“We have reports that over 1263 Hmong
demonstrators are missing at the hands of Vietnamese
People's Army soldiers and secret police who have brought in
military trucks to force Hmong protesters arrested, ”
Smith concluded.

According to the CPPA and other sources, at least
seventeen Viet-Hmong Christians were killed and 33 wounded
on May 3rd in the Dien Bien Province, and Dien Bein Phu,
areas of Vietnam bordering Laos n attacks by VPA military
forces. All of these people were independent Catholic and
Protestant Christian believers. Additionally, eleven
independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also known,
and confirmed, to have been killed on the same day by
Vietnam People's Army forces.

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